What else matters this week?

Inflation hit 9.1% across the Eurozone in August.

Long COVID is keeping millions of Americans out of work.

How to harness neurodiversity in the workplace.

Germany’s 9 Euro train ticket resulted in emissions cut.

Read more of our latest insights here. Below, we’ve got a full breakdown of all the top headlines you can’t miss this week.

#1. Is employee monitoring ever okay?

Electronic surveillance of staff is growing, a New York Times investigation has found. Employers have been monitoring emails sent, phone calls taken, how much workers move their mouse or keyboard – and in some cases, even webcams. Everyone from doctors to architects to administrators all reported that their productivity was being monitored at home. Some workers even revealed scoreboards to track their productivity based on these monitoring tools. Read more here.

#2. Does edtech respect children’s privacy?

School is starting up again, and that means kids return to using educational software and computers. But do these companies respect children’s privacy? Products like Google Classroom and ClassDojo may be illegally tracking usage data to target children with commercial products, UK privacy campaigners claim. Denmark banned Chromebooks in schools after an inquiry revealed data transfers to US servers – a clear clash with GDPR standards. The global edtech and smart classroom market is estimated to grow from $101 billion in 2022 to $319 billion by 2029. Read more here.

#3. Europe’s VC on permanent vacation?

Venture capital investment fell sharply in August 2022, even when taking into account European summer. It’s down by as much as 69% year on year. The drop off in VC funding in Europe has not been as extreme as in Asia and the US…But experts caution those trends may not stick. Read more here.

#4. Weed, Europe’s other green revolution.

Europe is poised to become a new frontier for an industry that has flourished across the pond: recreational marijuana. Germany is expected to legalize recreational cannabis in coming years under the centre-left chancellor Olaf Scholz. But despite this momentum (Malta, for example, legalized cannabis in 2022), the industry still has an image problem. Read more here.

#5. Snap to cut a fifth of its workforce

Snap has confirmed it will lay off a fifth of its workforce – or, 6,400 employees. In addition, the company plans to halt several of its ongoing projects. CEO Evan Spiegel called for a major restructuring after their annual sales growth in the last quarter tapped out at 8%. The company is looking to focus resources on community and revenue growth. The Pixy photo-taking drone, Snap Originals, and Snap games are among some of the projects that will be axed. Read more here.